Fake figures or no, the $100-million contract handed to quarterback Colin Kaepernick by the San Francisco 49ers last season looks worse by the day. Kaepernick, who excelled under former Niners head coach Jim Harbaugh's creative, run-heavy, play-action offense, has looked like a shell of his former successful self this season. It's a change that hasn't gone unnoticed around the league.
"Offensively, San Francisco will struggle until they realize their overpaid field general is not a dropback quarterback," an AFC personnel man said, via Bob McGinn of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.
Kaepernick's current passer rating is 71.1, good enough for 30th in the league. This past weekend, against a tough Arizona Cardinals team, Kaepernick tossed two pick-six's to start the game and spent the rest of the afternoon just trying to keep the serious mistakes to a minimum. Unfortunately, he couldn't stop himself from turning the ball over to the opportunistic Cards defense. Kaepernick finished the day with four interceptions and the lowest rating of his career, 16.7.
"Kaepernick hasn't changed and really hasn't progressed a whole lot as a quarterback," an assistant defensive coach for a team who recently played the 49ers said, per McGinn. "Kaepernick is predictable. He's a whole lot more thrower than he is passer."
While many expected the Niners to struggle this season considering the devastating losses they suffered on defense - Patrick Willis, Justin Smith, Chris Borland, Chris Culliver - along with Harbaugh's departure, no one could have expected that Kaepernick would fall back to earth with such a thud.
Sure, he was never the elite passer some made him out to be, but he was more than competent enough to rack up four seasons of 60.0 percent or higher completion percentage and two years of 91.0 or greater passer rating. Geep Chryst was supposed to help Kaepernick get back to basics and improve his reads while the team continued to lean heavily on the running game. And yet, through three weeks, Kaepernick looks worse than he ever has in an NFL uniform. Based on stats, you'd think that the Niners loss to the Steelers represented a good outing for Kaepernick, but most of his stats came after Pittsburgh had raced out to a big lead and the Steel Curtain became something more like a Tin Shift as they ran out the clock.
While the Super Bowl-hopeful Packers represent a major hurdle and potentially yet another difficult weekend for Kaepernick and Co., his past success against them - 3-0, 101.3 passer rating - could prove the perfect salve at the perfect time.
